Wednesday, 28 August 2013

The Mothership The Daleks

Daleks

In order for me to give
a good and proper account of the Dalek race I’ll have to take it right back to
its very beginning, to the first ever appearance on our TV screens way back in
December 1963 with William Hartnell, and in the second serial The Daleks. Back then their appearance was pretty
basic. They had the familiar eye stalk
and the sink plunger and also a ray gun which looked like a cylindrical metal
tube with outer metal narrow pipes that often reminded me of a basic
whisk.

The Daleks episode was
broadcast on 21st December 1963.
Directed by Christopher Barry, writer Terry Nation, music by Tristram
Cary.

The Dalek operators were
Robert Jewell, Kevin Manser, Peter Murphy, Michael Summerton and Gerald
Taylor. Voices were provided by Peter
Hawkins and David Graham. The voices of
the Daleks were passed through a ring modulator to give them a unique sound
like early day synthesizers.

The Daleks were designed
by Raymond Cusick based on the description given by Terry Nation. There were also four fibreglass and plywood
props constructed by Shawcraft Models, and in the early days cardboard cut out
Daleks were used to boost their ranks unlike today where the use of CGI can
boost up ranks tenfold.

(Raymond Cusick)

The Skaro Daleks as they
were classed were silver with blue balls on their skirts; their weaponry was
basic, with the standard sink plunger and the gun mount that contains an energy
weapon.

The other thing to note
here are the lights on their dome; they’re not as prominent as they are in
their revival during the 9th incarnation of the Doctor.

In the first series The Daleks the story tells of the
Daleks being descendants of the Dals, creatures mutated after the nuclear war
between the Dal and Thal races 500 years ago.
The Dals being what the Daleks became.
These Daleks were restricted to their base and flat surfaces where they
could only move due to the static electricity.
This species of Dalek was destroyed when their power supply was damaged
beyond repair.

In the film Doctor Who and the Daleks, that was
released 23rd August 1965, was written by Milton Subotsky and based
on the tv series, with one slightly differing
factor.The Doctor in the movie was not
a Timelord nor was he from Gallifrey.Instead, Peter Cushing’s version of the Doctor was an eccentric inventor
and time traveller whose full name was Doctor Who and that he’d created a time
machine that he’d called TARDIS which was a Police Box and he was a human from
Earth.The characters who followed the
Doctor were the same as those in the first episode, Susan, Barbara and
Ian.Ian this time however was played by
Roy Castle.What is also interesting to
note are the voices provided for the Daleks are the same as those in the tv
series, and many of the Dalek operators were the same people from the series
also.

In season two, of the
television series, The Dalek Invasion of
Earth which was aired November 21st
1964 saw the Daleks on Earth sometime after 2164. The TARDIS materialised in London to find the
city in ruins and many humans exterminated, those still alive were living like
refugees in a nearby Underground Station. The Daleks had conquered the population by
using brainwashed Robomen.

(A Roboman)

Again the Dalek voices were
provided by Peter Hawkins and David Graham, and alongside four of the previous
Dalek operators were Ken Tyllsen and Nick Evans.

Director was Richard
Martin, writer Terry Nation and music this time by Francis Chagrin.

1964 Earth Dalek
Warriors

The Daleks in this
episode had extended plungers and disks on their backs. This enabled them to venture beyond Skaro,
and to glide on all road surfaces and not just inside buildings with smooth
flooring and static electricity. They
also had wider bumpers to navigate the external terrains, rather like bumper
cars.

In the 1966 film the title was similar to the episode aside from the date losing at least 16 years. Daleks Invasion Earth 2150AD.

The Dalek space ship was
different to how it is today but again this was a film based loosely on Terry Nation’s
story of The Daleks. Again this saw
Peter Cushing reprising his role as the eccentric time traveller the Doctor in
his travel machine TARDIS that was the old Police box. This time he travelled with his granddaughter
Susan (Roberta Tovey), Louise (Jill Curzon) and London Special Constable Tom
Campbell (Bernard Cribbins).

The film was released on
5th August 1966 and written by Terry Nation, Milton Subotsky and
David Whitaker.

What’s interesting to
note is that the Robomen look slightly more menacing in their get up, than
those in the actual series. The ones in
the series look like an early idea of the Cybermen.

(movie roboform)

In the TV series episode
The Dalek Invasion of Earth 2164 we
saw different hierarchy of the Dalek race.
Out on the streets rather like the drone army, we saw the Earth Dalek,
onboard the Dalek ship however another position was held by the Dalek Saucer
Command, these Daleks were like the standard Dalek but for the black dome and
black and silver strips on their skirts but still with the blue balls.

The other thing to note
about the Daleks in the movie was the replacement of the sink plunger to a
metal grabber. This gave them more of a
robotic look than the regular Dalek we’d seen before.

Another of the Daleks
from this episode was the original Supreme Black Dalek, whose function was to
take control of the Earth based operation.
This Dalek had only a band of silver around its weapon arms and the
grill panel near the dome, the rest was black with the blue balls. These Daleks
did not appear in any other episode. (1964 Dalek below)

In 1965 saw another
change in the Daleks, this time reverting back to those from 1963, the silver
with blue balls on their skirts.Their
sink plungers and ray guns were still the same and their dome lights were only
slightly raised.But this time their midriff
featured vertical slatted strips of metal that were the solar power that
enabled them to travel anywhere, and were able to follow the Doctor wherever he
went.Even through time!

These Daleks appeared in
the The Chase (1965), Mission to the Unknown (1965), The Dalek’s Master Plan (1965),

When the 1st
Doctor regenerated into the 2nd incarnation, we’d already seen 5
changes in Dalek. As the series advanced
the changes began to take more shape.

As Patrick Troughton
took the role of the Doctor, we saw these Daleks appear again in The Power of the Daleks(1966). These were the modified movie version Daleks,
they had fully operating flame throwers that were built by Raymond Cusick.

In the 1967 episode The Evil of the Daleks, the cyborg had
changed again.This time their dome was
black and they took orders only from the Dalek Emperor, a different version
again to the 9th Incarnation of the Doctor.

In 1972 the Daleks appeared as grey Dalek
warriors, this time with black balls instead of the familiar blue, they still
retained their vertical slats on their midriff, and the sucker and ray gun
weapons were still the same. Again the
lights on either side of the dome were small and roundish.

These were the Daleks I
remembered from my youth.

These Daleks appeared in
Day of the Daleks (1972), Frontier in Space (1973), Planet of the Daleks(1973). For those who can remember watching Doctor
Who on the old black and white TV’s, may remember the day when viewing the
episode Day of the Daleks in colour, and from behind the sofa.

With the regeneration of
the 3rd Doctor to the 4th incarnation, we next saw them again
in Genesis of the Daleks, and met the scariest creature of all. Davros!

The 4th Doctor and his
companions Sarah Jane Smith and Harry Sullivan are transported to Skaro to
thwart Davros' plans of creating a master race of metal creatures that will
spread outside of Skaro and dominate time and space in the universe, but he
fails.

Skaro is war torn after
a thousand year war has left the planet a waste ground, its ecology ruined by
nuclear, biological and chemical warfare.
The Kaleds are in power over the Thals and Mutos. Mutos are the not pure race, ravaged by war
and the chemicals on the landscape they are often rounded up to move the
radioactive components into a missile which will be launched at the Kaled
Dome. The Thals have Sarah Jane Smith as
prisoner.

The Thals and the Kaleds
are at war. In this series the Kaleds are
shown for what they will be in the future, once their cells are scraped back
and chemically altered and pity and compassion removed. They are revealed as something horrific
growing in tanks. The Doctor sees for
himself these creatures as he’s shown by Ronson what the man’s future will be
like. It’s then that the Doctor knows
what he must destroy!

(illustration by Daryl
Joyce)

Terry Nation grew up in
World War II and it is quite easy to see that his influence of the Daleks and
especially Davros were taken from this era.
Davros is depicted as Hitler and wants a pure master race. The Daleks his minions, like the Nazi's who
eradicated anyone who wasn't in agreement with their plans. Plus if you weren't a Dalek and you couldn't
be used by them, then you were instantly exterminated, those who were
experimented on were exterminated much later when they were no longer required.

Genesis of the Daleks is
possibly the most horrific of all the stories within the Dalek history, as it
mirrors the Second World War and the genocide of those who were not 'pure
race.'

In one part of the
episode the Doctor’s mission had been to halt the proceedings of the master
race of Daleks, but it also posed some moral dilemmas for the Doctor. In a “Have I the right?” scene, it questioned
how different it would make the Doctor in wiping one race from existence. It would make him no better than the Daleks
for causing mass genocide of one race of aliens. One way of thinking was to keep the Daleks
alive and to gain support from other races who up until that time may not have
been allies of the Timelords. But it was
a risky choice to make.

The Doctor has learnt
that the Thals and Mutos are preparing to detonate explosives that will seal
the Daleks inside the bunker and have little time to escape. The Doctor returns to destroy the Kaled
mutants but a Dalek has inadvertently completed the circuit and destroys the
room. Harry, The Doctor and Sarah escape
just before the explosives detonate.

In the bunker Davros is
the only one still alive after the Daleks have killed everyone. They have also started the production line
going totally against their creator’s wishes.
As he realises that the Daleks are able to think for themselves, he attempts
to destroy the bunker but is shot by a Dalek.

Genesis of the Daleks
had six weekly parts from 8 March to 12 April 1975.

In the next Issue we’ll
be looking at the Daleks from 1972 onwards and how much more they have changed
over the years. In the 3rd Issue we’ll be looking at their complete
change in the RTD years and onto the Moffat years.